Page 50 of Dante's Circle Reborn

However, he did get shit done when it came to the Conclave, so he wasn’t all bad.

“What did I miss?” she asked, leaning against the edge of her bowl. He leaned against his, and she did her best not to let anybody’s stares bother her. No one else was truly in their shifter forms except for them, and she hated it. Loathed being on display. But she couldn’t fix it, not until after the minutes of the last Conclave were read, and she could change into her human form and sit on the edge of the bowl if she felt like it. She had done that more often than not recently, and she planned on doing it tonight, too.

“They’re about to start the minutes. It seems that a few of the elders were late, as well.”

Her eyebrows rose. “Why?”

“Probably because they like to keep us waiting.”

“You know, I wouldn’t put that past them.”

There were murmurs, and then the minutes were read. As soon as they were, she quickly shifted back to her human form and dressed. Reynard stayed in his mer-form, but he didn’t have to deal with the stares as much as she did. Usually anyway. Some of them liked to look at his tail just as much as hers.

They went over the agenda, and she was kind of grateful that nothing seemed too important. It was mostly just rehashing what had gone on at the last meeting. That meant that, at the moment, there weren’t too many wars and battles happening.

“I take it you took care of the rogue situation,” one of the elders said to one of the wolf Conclave members.

The Alpha of the Nocturne Pack nodded. “My men took care of it. You won’t have to deal with it.”

“And you took in that fox kit?” another elder asked.

“Yes.” The Alpha of the Pack glared over at the fox Conclave members, but the foxes didn’t seem to notice or care.

“Wonder what that was about,” Reynard whispered as the talks moved to something else.

“Don’t worry about it,” she whispered. “Seriously.”

He just looked at her. She knew exactly what that was about, and what the gorgons had been doing as they were questioned, as well. Not because it had made Conclave news before this, but because it all had to do with friends of friends and the fact that her circle was growing as Seth’s circle seemed to. She didn’t mind knowing as much as she did, and she liked having people in her life because, sometimes, it got a little lonely with what she was doing.

“If that’s all, we can end our Conclave,” the elder said, his voice low.

There was a commotion from the front, and the large—at least four-stories-high—gold, gilded doors slid open, smashing into the walls as a man with dark hair, a smirk, and a long, leather trench stormed in. He strode confidently forward, his head held high. Everyone started to shout, glaring at him.

“Unauthorized entry. Who let him in? Where are our guards?”

People started to move, ready to fight, but the elders held up their hands.

“Stay in your seats. What is the meaning of this?”

“You’re having a Conclave meeting. Shouldn’t you have all species represented?” the mysterious stranger asked.

Caly moved forward, trying to sense what he was, but she felt like she hit a brick wall when she tried. She had no idea what type of supernatural he was. And she was usually pretty good at sensing those things.

“I don’t understand,” the elder growled out.

“No, you don’t seem to understand much. But I just need to make sure you understand this. You have left out a prominent species based on your hatred. Let me join as a Conclave member, along with one other as per your rules, or suffer the consequences.”

There was an uproar, and she moved forward, trying to understand what was happening.

A new species? That hadn’t happened before. At least to her knowledge. The shades weren’t a new species, they had once been on the Conclave long ago, but everyone had thought they’d died out. When they showed up again, they had been allowed on the Conclave.

However, she didn’t know of another species like that.

Who was this man? And why couldn’t she pull her gaze from him?

“Be ready to run,” Tristan, Caly’s brother-in-law, said from her side.

He was fae, one of the Conclave members. His friend, a wizard named Levi, was at his side.

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